Psychology of the Unconscious A Study of the...

279. Naturally a precursor of onanism.

280. This true catatonic pendulum movement of the head, I saw arise in the case of a catatonic patient, from the coitus movements gradually shifted upwards. This Freud has described long ago as a shifting from below to above.

281. She put the small fragments which fell out into her mouth and ate them.

282. “Dreams and Myths.” Vienna 1909. Translated by Wm. A. White, M.D.

283. A. Kuhn: “Mythologische Studien,” Vol. I: “Die Herabkunft des Feuers und des Göttertrankes.” Gütersloh 1886. A very readable résumé of the contents is to be found in Steinthal: “Die ursprüngliche Form der Sage von Prometheus,” Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft, Vol. II, 1862; also in Abraham: Ibid.

284. Also mathnâmi and mâthayati. The root manth or math has a special significance.

285. Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung, Vol. II, p. 395, and Vol. IV, p. 124.

286. I learn (that which is learned, knowledge; the act of learning), to take thought beforehand, to Prometheus (forethought).

287. Prometheus, the herald of the Titans.

288. Bapp in Roscher’s “Lexicon,” Sp. 3034.

289. Bhṛgu = φλεγυ, a recognized connection of sound. See Roscher: Sp. 3034, 54.

290. For the eagle as a fire token among the Indians, see Roscher: Sp. 3034, 60.

291. The stem manth according to Kuhn becomes in German mangeln, rollen (referring to washing). Manthara is the butter paddle. When the gods generated the amrta (drink of immortality) by twirling the ocean around, they used the mountain Mandara as the paddle (see Kuhn: Ibid., p. 17). Steinthal calls attention to the Latin expression in poetical speech: mentula = male member, in which ment (manth) was used. I add here also, mentula is to be taken as diminutive for menta or mentha (μίνθα), Minze. In antiquity the Minze was called “Crown of Aphrodite” (Dioscorides, II, 154). Apuleius called it “mentha venerea”; it was an aphrodisiac. (The opposite meaning is found in Hippocrates: Si quis eam saepe comedat, ejus genitale semen ita colliquescit, ut effluat, et arrigere prohibet et corpus imbecillum reddit), and according to Dioscorides, Minze is a means of preventing conception. (See Aigremont: “Volkserotik und Pflanzenwelt,” Vol. I, p. 127). But the ancients also said of Menta: “Menta autem appellata, quod suo odore mentem feriat—mentae ipsius odor animum excitat.” This leads us to the root ment—in Latin mens; English, mind—with which the parallel development to pramantha, Προμηθεύς, would be completed. Still to be added is that an especially strong chin is called mento (mentum).

A special development of the chin is given, as we know, to the priapic figure of Pulcinello, also the pointed beard (and ears) of the satyrs and the other priapic demon, just as in general all the protruding parts of the body can be given a masculine significance and all the receding parts or depressions a feminine significance. This applies also to all other animate or inanimate objects. See Maeder: Psycho.-Neurol. Wochenschr., X. Jahrgang. However, this whole connection is more than a little uncertain.

292. Abraham observes that in Hebrew the significance of the words for man and woman is related to this symbolism.

293. “What is called the gulya (pudendum) means the yoni (the birthplace) of the God; the fire, which was born there, is called ‘beneficent’” (“Kâtyâyanas Karmapradîpa,” I, 7; translated by Kuhn: “Herabkunft des Feuers,” p. 67). The etymologic connection between bohren—geboren is possible. The Germanic bŏrôn (to bore) is primarily related to the Latin forare and the Greek φαράω = to plow. Possibly it is an Indo-Germanic root bher with the meaning to bear; Sanscrit bhar-; Greek φερ-; Latin fer-; from this Old High German beran, English to bear, Latin fero and fertilis, fordus (pregnant); Greek φορός. Walde (“Latin Etym.,” s. Ferio) traces forare to the root bher-. Compare with this the phallic symbolism of the plough, which we meet later on.

294. Weber: “Indische Studien,” I, 197; quoted by Kuhn: Ibid., p. 71.

295. “Rigveda,” III, 29—1 to 3.

296. Or mankind in general. Viçpatni is the feminine wood, viçpati, an attribute of Agni, the masculine. In the instruments of fire lies the origin of the human race, from the same perverse logic as in the beforementioned shuttle and sword-hilt. Coitus as the means of origin of the human race must be denied, from the motive, to be more fully discussed later, of a primitive resistance against sexuality.

297. Wood as the symbol of the mother is well known from the dream investigation of the present time. See Freud: “Dream Interpretation.” Stekel (“Sprache des Traumes,” p. 128) explains it as the symbol of the woman. Wood is also a German vulgar term for the breast. (“Wood before the house.”) The Christian wood symbolism needs a chapter by itself. The son of Ilâ: Ilâ is the daughter of Manus, the one and only, who with the help of his fish has overcome the deluge, and then with his daughter again procreated the human race.

298. See Hirt: “Etymologie der neuhochdeutschen Sprache,” p. 348.

299. The capitular of Charlemagne of 942 forbade “those sacrilegious fires which are called Niedfyr.” See Grimm: “Mythologie,” 4th edition, p. 502. Here there are to be found descriptions of similar fire ceremonies.

300. Kuhn: Ibid., p. 43.

301. Instead of preserving the divine faith in its purity, the reader will call to mind the fact that in this year when the plague, usually called Lung sickness, attacked the herds of cattle in Laodonia, certain bestial men, monks in dress but not in spirit, taught the ignorant people of their country to make fire by rubbing wood together and to set up a statue of Priapus, and by that method to succor the cattle. After a Cistercian lay brother had done this near Fentone, in front of the entrance of the “Court,” he sprinkled the animals with holy water and with the preserved testicles of a dog, etc.

302. Preuss: “Globus,” LXXXVI, 1905, S. 358.

303. Compare with this Friedrich Schultze: “Psychologie der Naturvölker,” p. 161.

304. This primitive play leads to the phallic symbolism of the plough. Ἀροῦν means to plough and possesses in addition the poetic meaning of impregnate. The Latin arare means merely to plough, but the phrase “fundum alienum arare” means “to pluck cherries in a neighbor’s garden.” A striking representation of the phallic plough is found on a vase in the archeological museum in Florence. It portrays a row of six naked ithyphallic men who carry a plough represented phallically (Dieterich: “Mutter Erde,” p. 107). The “carrus navalis” of our spring festival (carnival) was at times during the Middle Ages a plough (Hahn: “Demeter und Baubo,” quoted by Dieterich: Ibid., p. 109). Dr. Abegg of Zurich called my attention to the clever work of R. Meringer (“Wörter und Sachen. Indogermanische Forschungen,” 16, 179/84, 1904). We are made acquainted there with a very far-reaching amalgamation of the libido symbols with the external materials and external activities, which support our previous considerations to an extraordinary degree. Meringer’s assumption proceeds from the two Indo-Germanic roots, ṷen and ṷeneti. Indo-Germanic *uen Holz, ai. ist. van, vana. Agni is garbhas vanām, “fruit of the womb of the woods.”

Indo-Germanic *ṷeneti signifies “he ploughs”: by that is meant the penetration of the ground by means of a sharpened piece of wood and the throwing up of the earth resulting from it. This verb itself is not verified because this very primitive working of the ground was given up at an early time. When a better treatment of the fields was learned, the primitive designation for the ploughed field was given to the pasture, therefore Gothic vinja, υομη, Old Icelandic vin, pasture, meadow. Perhaps also the Icelandic Vanen, as Gods of agriculture, came from that.

From ackern (to plough) sprang coïre (the connection might have been the other way); also Indo-Germanic *ṷenos (enjoyment of love), Latin venus. Compare with this the root ṷen = wood. Coïre = passionately to strive; compare Old High German vinnan, to rave or to storm; also the Gothic vēns; ἐλπις = hope; Old High German wân = expectation, hope; Sanscrit van, to desire or need; further, Wonne (delight, ecstasy); Old Icelandic vinr (beloved, friend). From the meaning ackern (to plough) arises wohnen (to live). This transition has been completed only in the German. From wohnen → gewöhnen, gewohnt sein (to be accustomed), Old Icelandic vanr = gewohnt (to be accustomed); from ackern further → sich mühen, plagen (to take much trouble, wearing work), Old Icelandic vinna, to work: Old High German winnan (to toil hard, to overwork); Gothic vinnan, πάσχειν; vunns, πάθημα. From ackern comes, on the other hand, gewinnen, erlangen (to win, to attain), Old High German giwinnan, but also verletzen (to injure): Gothic vunds (wund), wound. Wund in the beginning, the most primal sense, was therefore the ground torn up by the wooden implement. From verletzen (to injure) come schlagen (to strike), besiegen (to conquer): Old High German winna (strife); Old Saxon winnan (to battle).

305. The old custom of making the “bridal bed” upon the field, which was for the purpose of rendering the field fertile, contains the primitive thought in the most elementary form; by that the analogy was expressed in the clearest manner: Just as I impregnate the woman, so do I impregnate the earth. The symbol leads the sexual libido over to the cultivation of the earth and to its fruitfulness. Compare with that Mannhardt: “Wald- und Feldkulte,” where there are abundant illustrations.

306. Spielrein’s patient (Jahrbuch, III, p. 371) associates fire and generation in an unmistakable manner. She says as follows concerning it: “One needs iron for the purpose of piercing the earth and for the purpose of creating fire.” This is to be found in the Mithra liturgy as well. In the invocation to the fire god, it is said: ὁ συνδήσας πνεύματι τὰ πὑρινα κλεῖθρα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ (Thou who hast closed up the fiery locks of heaven, with the breath of the spirit,—open to me). “With iron one can create cold people from the stone.” The boring into the earth has for her the meaning of fructification or birth. She says: “With the glowing iron one can pierce through mountains. The iron becomes glowing when one pushes it into a stone.”

Compare with this the etymology of bohren and gebären (see above). In the “Bluebird” of Maeterlinck the two children who seek the bluebird in the land of the unborn children, find a boy who bores into his nose. It is said of him: he will discover a new fire, so as to warm the earth again, when it will have grown cold.

307. Compare with this the interesting proofs in Bücher: “Arbeit und Rhythmus,” Leipzig 1899.

308. Amusement is undoubtedly coupled with many rites, but by no means with all. There are some very unpleasant things.

309. The Upanishads belong to the Brâhmana, to the theology of the Vedic writings, and comprise the theosophical-speculative part of the Vedic teachings. The Vedic writings and collections are in part of very uncertain age and may reach back to a very distant past because for a long period they were handed down only orally.

310. The primal and omniscient being, the idea of whom, translated into psychology, is comprehended in the conception of libido.

311. Âtman is also considered as originally a bisexual being—corresponding to the libido theory. The world sprang from desire. Compare Bṛihadâraṇyaka-Upaniṣhad, I, 4, 1 (Deussen):

“(1) In the beginning this world was Âtman alone—he looked around: Then he saw nothing but himself.

“(2) Then he was frightened; therefore, one is afraid, when one is alone. Then he thought: Wherefore should I be afraid, since there is nothing beside myself?

“(3) But also he had no joy, therefore one has no joy when one is alone. Then he longed for a companion.”